By sweetness she is the very
That flew out of Jupiter's brain-pan.
Marfton's First Part of Antonio and Mellida.
One excellence to many is the mother;
Wit doth as creatures, one beget another.
Drayton in the Mirror for Magiftrates.
The wit of man wanes and decreases foon ;
But woman's wit is ever at full moon.
Middleton's Mad World my Mafters.
When she has reapt what I have fown,
She'll fay one grain tafts better of her own,
Than whole fheaves gather'd from another's land:
Wit's never good, till bought at a dear hand.
Dekker's First Part of the Honeft Whore.
He should have state, that riseth by his wit.
He's a good husband, who fo buys his wit,
That others, not himself, doth pay for it.
When wit makes not abufe its exercise,
The ufes of it then are truly wife:
But 'tis a foolish vanity, not wit,
When conscience bounds are broke to practice it.
In meaner wits that proverb chance may hold,
That they who foon are ripe, are seldom old.
Goftelow on Tho. Randolph's Death.
Dread not the fhackles; on with thine intent :
Good wits get more fame by their punishment.
Wit's an unruly engine, wildly ftriking
Sometimes a friend, fometimes the engineer:
Haft thou the knack ? pamper it not with liking:
But if thou want it, buy it not too dear,
Many affecting wit beyond their pow'r,
Have got to be a dear fool for an hour.
As buds to bloffoms, bloffoms turn to fruit ;
So wits ask time to ripen and recruit,
Thy wit's chief virtue, is become it's vice;
For ev'ry beauty thou haft rais'd fo high,
That now coarfe faces carry fuch a price,
As muft undo a lover that should buy.
Sir W. Davenant to Tho. Carew.
The nimble packing hand, the swift
Disorder'd fhuffle, or the flur, or his
More bafe employment, who makes love for bread,
Do all belong to men that may be thought
To live, fir, by their fins, not by their wits.
Sir W. Davenant's Wits.
These are the victories of wit: by wit
We must atchieve our hopes; which to refine
And purify, with paces doubled let us
Defcend a marble vault: there taste the rich
Legitemate blood of the mighty grape :
It magnifies the heart, and makes the agile
Spirits dance;
It drowns all thoughts adulterate and fad,
Infpires the prophet, makes the poet glad.
Sir W. Davenant's Juft Italian, Wit flies beyond the limit of that law,
By which our fculptors 'grave, or painters draw,
And ftatuarys up to nature grow;
Who all their ftrokes of life to poets owe.
Their art can make no fhape for wit to wear,
It is divine, and can no image bear:
None by defcription can that foul exprefs;
Yet all must the effects of it confefs:
States boaft of thofe effects, when they relate,
How they in treatys foil'd a duller ftate:
And warriors, fhewing how they gain'd the day,
How they drew up, and where their ambush lay:
And lovers, telling, why a rival fail'd,
Whilft they but whisper'd beauty, and prevail'd:
And cloifter'd men, when they with fmiles declare
How rigidly they are confin'd from care,
And how they let the world plough troubled feas,
Whilft they for penance muft endure their ease.
Sir W. Davenant to the E. of Orrery.
As fullen heirs, when waftful fathers dye,
Their old debts leave for their pofterity
To clear; and the remaining acres ftrive
T'enjoy, to keep them pleasant whilft alive:
So I (alas!) were to my felf unkind,
If from that little wit, he left behind,
I fimply should so great a debt defray;
I'll keep it to maintain me, not to pay.
Yet, for my foul's laft quiet when I dye,
I will commend it to pofterity:
Although 'tis fear'd, 'cause they are left fo poor,
They'll but acknowledge, what they fhould reftore.
Sir W. Davenant to Doctor Duppa.
You can't expect that they should be great wits,
Who have small purfes, they usually
Sympathize together; wit is expenfive,.
It must be dieted with delicacies,
It must be fuckled with the richest wines,
Or else it will grow flat and dull.
Time runs, love flies;
He that thinks leaft, is the most wife:
And fortune ever did approve
A prefent wit, in war, or love.
WI VE S.
I will rather truft a Fleming with my
Butter, parfon Hugh the Welchman with my
Cheese, an Irishman with my aqua vitæ
Bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling
Gelding, than my wife with her felf: then she
Plots, then the ruminates, then she devises:
And what they think in their hearts they may effect,
They will break their hearts but they will effect.
Shakespear's Merry Wives of Windfor
We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do,
Wives may be merry, and yet honeft too;
We do not act, that often jeft and laugh:
'Tis old, but true, ftill fwine eat all the broth.
Such duty as the fubject owes the prince,
Ev'n fuch a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she's froward, peevish, fullen, fower,
And not obedient to his honeft will,
What is the but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traytor to her loving lord?
I am afham'd, that women are fo fimple
To offer war, where they fhould kneel for peace;
Or feek for rule, fupremacy, and fway,
When they are bound to ferve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies foft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our foft conditions, and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms,
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reafon happly more,
To bandy word for word, and frown for frown;
But now I fee, our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare;
That feeming to be moft, which we indeed least are.
Then vale your ftomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husbands foot:
In token of which duty if he please,
My hand is ready, may it do him ease.
Shakespear's Taming of the Shrew. After you are marry'd, fir, fuffer valiantly; For I muft tell you all the perils that you are Obnoxious to. If the be fair, young, and Vegetous, no fweetmeats ever drew more Flies; all the yellow doublets, and great rofes
In the town will be there: if foul and crooked,
She'll be with them, and buy those doublets and
Rofes, fir; if rich, and that you marry
Her dowry, not her, fhe'll reign in your house,
As imperious as a widow: if noble,
All her kindred will be your tyrants: if
Fruitful, as proud as May, and humorous
As April; the must have her doctors, her
Midwives, her Nurfes, her longings ev'ry
Hour; though it be for the deareft morfel
Of man: if learned, there was never fuch
A parrot; all your patrimony will
Be too little for the guests that must be
Invited, to hear her speak Latin and Greek:
And you must lie with her in those languages
Too, if you will please her: if precife, you
Muft feaft all the filenc'd brethren once in
Three days, falute the fifters, entertain
The whole family, or woo'd of them, and
Hear long-winded exercises, fingings,
And catechifings, which your not giv'n to,
And yet muft give for, to please the zealous
Matron your wife; who, for the holy cause,
Will cozen you over and above: then, if
You love your wife, or rather doat on her,
O, how she'll torture you, and take pleasure
In your torments! you fhall lye with her but
When the lifts; fhe will not hurt her beauty,
Her complection, or it must be, for that
Jewel, or that pearl, when the does; ev'ry
Half hour's pleafure must be bought anew, and
With the fame pain and charge you woo'd her at first.
Then, you must keep what fervants the pleafe, what
Company fhe will; that friend must not vifit
You without her license; and him fhe loves.
Moft, fhe will feem to hate eagerlieft
To decline your jealoufy, or feign to be
Jealous of you firft; and for that cause go
Live with her the-friend, or cozen at the
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